Woman testifies therapist violated her

WEST CHESTER – A woman told the Common Pleas Court jury hearing the case of a Chadds Ford massage therapist that she “froze” when she felt William Eric Webb’s hand touching her inappropriately during one of her sessions at his office.

She had been seeing Webb for treatment of pain in her shoulders, neck, and head for several weeks, and had gotten a “creepy” feeling about him during that time, but aside from a brief incident when he touched her chest under the sports bra she was wearing had no reason to distrust him, the woman testified on the second day of Webb’s trial on indecent assault charges.

But then on Sept. 15, 2011, as she was lying on her back on the massage table more than halfway through their session involving the practice of myofascial release therapy, she felt Webb’s hand at her underwear and his fingers probing that area.

“I froze, and he asked me a question,” the woman told the jury in Judge David Bortner’s courtroom. “He asked if I was OK, and I shook my head no,” she said during questioning by Assistant District Attorney Max O’Keefe, the lead prosecutor in the case.

Advertisement

Asked if he said anything else, the woman said he did. “He said, ‘We will wait until you are more comfortable.’ ”

She said she left shortly thereafter.

Webb, 43, of Pennsbury is charged with multiple counts of aggravated indecent assault and indecent assault involving six former female patients of his practice on Kennett Pike. The women told state police investigators that during massage sessions with Webb, he touched them inappropriately and molested them. The complainants range in age from 48 to 60 years of age.

The women’s names are being withheld by the Daily Local News because of the nature of their allegations.

Through his attorney, Robert J. Donatoni of West Chester, Webb has denied any sexual indiscretions with the women, although Donatoni has made it clear Webb did touch the women on their skin while performing the techniques of myofascial release, which is a deep tissue massage meant to alleviate pain over the course of several treatments.

Donatoni has suggested to the jurors hearing the case that the women are either misinterpreting Webb’s behavior during the sessions, or have concocted the allegations against him in concert with one another.

The woman who said she froze after he touched her is a 48-year-old family counselor. She said she had regularly gone to massage therapists in the past, some with her husband for relief of stress. She saw the sign for Ebb’s office in late July 2011 and began seeing him for 60- or 90-minute sessions in August 2011.

After the incident on Sept. 15, she went back to Webb for another massage, although she specified to him that she did not want the myofascial treatment, but rather a standard relaxing massage. She tried to explain to the jury, under questioning from O‘Keefe, why she returned after he had fondled her, and why she didn’t tell anyone about the matter.

“I was embarrassed,” she said. “I put it aside. I put it in a box. I just wanted it to go away. I can’t give you an answer as (to why she went back.) Maybe to be a dutiful little soldier.”

Eventually however, she confronted Webb with her complaints in October 2011, after she had told members of a support group what had happened. She met him in her office, and told him that what he had don’t was “not OK.”

How did he respond, O’Keefe asked.

“He wasn’t sure what I was talking about,” she said. “Did he deny it? The prosecutor asked. He did not, the woman said.

She said she eventually told state police Trooper Todd Hershey, the led investigator in the case, about the incident, after a colleague told her about another woman who had complained about Webb’s behavior.

On cross-examination, Donatoni pointedly questioned why the woman would have returned to Webb’s office, and voluntarily submitted to a massage in which she was unclothed under a sheet, after allegedly being molested.

“You went back to the place you were violated, so you say,” the defense attorney asked. “You went back to the studio of someone who violated you, with nothing on, for a relaxing massage, right? And nothing happened, correct?” Correct, the woman said.

The trial will continue through the week with testimony from all six women, as well as a tape recorded phone conversation between one of the women and Webb. The defendant is also expected to take the stand in his own defense.